Life Around the Kelley Farm, 1861

A few months ago I received an email from the Sherburne History Center in tiny Becker, Minnesota. The Sherburne History Center is the home of, you guessed it, the Sherburne County historical society. Bobbie explained that they had a new facility and they wanted to use their empty wall space for art work. She had heard about me thru the Elk River Area Arts Alliance, of which I am a member, and she wanted to know if I'd be interested in showing my work. I said SURE.

As it turns out the History Center was in the process of researching and purchasing a hanging system for their walls and as such I get to have the honor of being the first artist to have a show there, I'm honored. I met with Bobbie to discuss the show and she was interested in a show that represents Sherburne county, a reasonable request given that this is the Sherburne History Center. So I went home and pondered the images from which I had to choose.

It didn't take long to decide what the theme of the show was to be. The Minnesota Historical Society operates an 1860's farm in my home city, the Kelley Farm. The Kelley Farm was owned by Oliver Kelley who founded the Grange Society and today is operated just like it was back in the 1860s. It has been a favorite place for us to go as a family and for me to shoot as a photographer. Over the years I had accumulated a nice collection of images and I thought this would be a great theme for my show.

So I've been going over images and I've selected 26 to be included in the show. Since I was depicting the Kelley Farm in 1861 I wanted to not only give it the feel of 1861 but also the look of 1861 so all images are sepia toned.

I've decided to print them all on 13"x19" Enhanced matte paper, image size approximately 9.5 x 14, and frame them in 16"x20" frames. I've got all images printed except for 1 and tonight I'll start the matting process. I think I have made a discovery, relative to matting, during this project but I'll discuss that in another post.

I'm pretty pleased with the prints and I think it will be a nice show.

Oh, the show opens on Jan 26 with a reception from 11am to 1pm, in case you are in Becker and want to stop by.

Roger